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Re: Downton Abbey

Love, love, LOVE Downton Abbey and can't wait for the new season to start. `Upstairs..' is another all-time fave that I re-vist, and one other you're likely to delight in is The Duchess of Duke Street, my # 1 series ever, ahead of both Forsyte Sagas ....

Re: Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey was really good...totally worthwhile watching! I'm looking forward to season 2 which is airing in January on PBS. According to their website, Season 1 will air again starting December 18th, 2011...as a prelude to start of season 2.

Re: Downton Abbey

Originally Posted by jaysizzles

Downton Abbey was really good...totally worthwhile watching! I'm looking forward to season 2 which is airing in January on PBS. According to their website, Season 1 will air again starting December 18th, 2011...as a prelude to start of season 2.

Re: Downton Abbey

Originally Posted by aagold76

I meant part 2...I saw part 1 last year.....

Oops. My bad.

Originally Posted by jaysizzles

Downton Abbey was really good...totally worthwhile watching! I'm looking forward to season 2 which is airing in January on PBS. According to their website, Season 1 will air again starting December 18th, 2011...as a prelude to start of season 2.

They used to have full episodes of it on their website..no longer.

That's an awfully long time to wait, given that the UK is premiering the second series on 18 September, with the DVDs scheduled to be released on 7 November (the day after airing of the last episode.)

Re: Downton Abbey

Originally Posted by aagold76

WOW- it's 15 episode???!!! They seem to be going back to the Masterpiece heydays of long series- Brideshead, Claudius, Upstairs/Downstairs....anyone else thing the 'Downton' Abbey title is a play on Upstairs/Downstairs?

I should have clarified, its 15 episodes in total. That's 7 episodes in series 1 and 8 episodes in series 2.

Originally Posted by goldenmoth

I adore Downton Abbey. Dame Maggie Smith has all the best lines.

I'm really glad no-one has come in here and said "I hate Downton Abbey because it makes gay people look like villians" because of Thomas but I always really understood where he's coming from.

He's not a nice guy but that's because he hasn't been treated nicely. So his logic is, screw you if the world is going to hate me unreasonably then I will hate it twice as much.

I didn't nearly hate Thomas as much as I did O'Brien. I couldn't fathom what bond they had with each other but she fed so much of what Thomas did!!

For all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these, 'It might have been.'

Re: Downton Abbey

Originally Posted by suck poppet

It's great to see that the public is still interested in quality scripted drama.
I really miss the days of the grand and lush mini-series like Centennial, Thornbirds and North & South.
But I guess the networks no longer want to invest in expensive productions when they can attract the same amount of viewers with cheaply produced reality trash and talent shows.
Downton Abbey was a sight for sore eyes, so to speak.

Mad Men will also have a budget of more than $3 million an episode – double the cost of even an expensive British period drama such as Downton Abbey. Ben Stephenson, the BBC's head of drama commissioning, points out that his entire annual budget would be used up by only a few shows if he matched the American spend per episode – and that the BBC has to provide something for everyone.

But there's one small snag that would give the Dowager Countess of Grantham the vapours: Carnival Films, the London-based production company that makes Downton Abbey for ITV, has been owned for the past three years by NBC.

Re: Downton Abbey

Originally Posted by suck poppet

It's great to see that the public is still interested in quality scripted drama.
I really miss the days of the grand and lush mini-series like Centennial, Thornbirds and North & South.
But I guess the networks no longer want to invest in expensive productions when they can attract the same amount of viewers with cheaply produced reality trash and talent shows.
Downton Abbey was a sight for sore eyes, so to speak.

North and South was just stunning. And how HOT is Richard Armitage?!

For all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these, 'It might have been.'

Re: Downton Abbey

Originally Posted by nondescript

I thought this show was depressing…locked into their roles …

I'm sure the 1912 reality was much more depressing than this sugar-ish show.

I was wincing how the characters were given unbelievable modern sensibilties to appease modern audiences. There were feminists, and it suggested the notion that the employers and servants were of equal worth and dependent on each other.

Dear Non, you should get the "Seven Up' videos to if you really want to see people locked into their roles.

Re: Downton Abbey

I wouldn't say it's as modernized as you seem to think it is. I mean Thomas is way in the closet and will probably never be able to come out, Mary is forced into marriage for the sake of her family etc.

As mentioned before, the Suffragettes movement was huge in the early 20th century so the fact that one of the sisters is a feminist is not exactly 2011.

Re: Downton Abbey

Originally Posted by aagold76

maybe I didn't think you knew because you keep calling it Gosforth Park....not Gosford....

My bad. Gosford Park was 10 years or more ago. But the fact that Downton and Gosford have the same writer isn't relevant to what I was saying, which is, in essence, that the Downton doesn't have the weight or context of Gosford.

To pick up on one or two of the other posts, I'm not even saying that it should, if people like it for what it is.

But it then stays at a less ambitious level of costume melodrama, rather than more impactful drama.

Because the writing is, to at least to me, so far one dimensional, I don't really care about the marital fortunes of the girls in the same way that one does in say, Jane Austen. It is just romantic escapism, whereas it could have been that and then some.

The other thing that occurs to me is that, despite dealing with a gay character, Downton is short on good looking guys, which is never a good thing.

Re: Downton Abbey

Originally Posted by aagold76

favorite moments...have to agree- Maggie Smith's 'What's a weekend' was priceless- she had all the funny lines, really....when she was in the swivel chair at Matthew's office- 'i was always a good sailor...' once she got her balance....hot Turk, Kemal Parmuk and the goregous hairy chest of the Duke....neither of them are listed on the IMBD page- anyone know who played them????

The Duke of Crowborough is played by Charlie Cox; Ottoman Empire embassy attache Kemal Pamuk is played by Theo James.

Re: Downton Abbey

Originally Posted by suck poppet

Which, ironically, is one of the more natural, realistic aspects of the show.
I don't think the polished "Playgirl"-type models are suitable for this particular ensemble (although Theo James as Mr. Pamuk came pretty close!).
Besides, the real hot actors are more suitable for shows with nudity in it, like Spartacus, OZ, Footballer's Wives and True Blood.

However (to contradict myself here) I do hope Henry Cavill will join the cast in future episodes since I had a big crush on him when he played Charles Branson in The Tudors.

Finally, may I suggest the movie "Up The Aristocracy", featuring The Ultimate Gayporn Couple, Daniel & Pedro? Some of the cumshots are very compelling and impactful and will certainly get you glued to the screen

LOL. I don't think one needs to go that far. But, just as an aside, it would be a pleasant surprise, if they showed a constructive gay relationship (I'm sure there must have been one or two during the period, despite the legal prohibitions). As it is, being gay is just associated with being a defective character. Who'd have thunk it?